Ring of Fire Finals - All

Central Rock Gym's 2014 Ring of Fire Finals - All Photos

An absolutely epic comp at Central Rock Watertown﻿. One I will never forget, because it cemented something in my mind:

I'm inspired by girl climbers. Not because some of these female athletes can crush hard "for a girl", but because they crush hard. Period. No qualifications necessary. Here’s my story:

I (unofficially) shot photography for the comp this weekend and all the pros were there - Daniel Woods, Vasya Vrotnikov, Josh Larson, Andy Lamb, Katie Lamb, Meagan Martin, Delaney Miller, Ashima Shiraishi, etc. The men's finals route was INSANE, and the woman's was just as fun. Watching the men go all out balls to the wall crazy, screaming in the effort to finish their route was hecticcc. Meanwhile, Ashima gracefully flies up women's finals route to the top, which the crowd went wild for. But even sweeter was when Delaney also finished that same route, because I immediately knew what that meant: SUPERFINALS. For Delaney and Ashima. On the men’s route.

Once the judge announced the super finals, the crowd was going nutsss, stoked to see what would happen when these girls tried their hand at the men's super burly, powerful, dynamic, stretched out, overhung route. Both guys and girls in the audience saying things to each other like “this is going to be fun, but there’s no wayyyy they can actually do this thing! it’s way too _____ (insert a myriad of reasons here).”

So Ashima gets on the route and the crowd starts off silent in rapt fascination. At 12 years old and wayyyy too short to reach through some of the moves, she works her way up the route one move at the time, having to resort to getting creative with her sequences each time she comes to a long move. And a few times, she throws for these huge moves and she misses and slips and almost falls, but she catches herself and continues to push on and fight for each one of the moves. And eventually, with some of the most determination I've ever seen in a climber, she throws big and MATCHES THE HIGH POINT OF THE ROUTE. Which was set by the BEST MALE CLIMBERS IN THE COUNTRY. And the real kicker was that it was her second route of the night! She beat/tied all the men after being pumped from already having climbed the women's finals route!!!!! What if she had been fresh?!?!!!! Delaney got on and also crushed, casually beating half the pro men at the comp. It was unreal.

Saturday night proved to me, and to everyone else there to witness: Not only do girls climb hard, they can climb harder than guys. You can leave your gender-biased slang and “for a girl” qualifications at home: In a comp full of pro athletes who devote their lives to climbing... a girl was the best climber in the room, and Delaney was right up there with her.

I liked that Reel Rock spot from a few years ago, featuring Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra competing on La Dura Dura. But now I’m thinking: maybe the next one should be Chris Sharma vs. Ashima Shiraishi, because I have a feeling that the best climber in the world is a girl. And that’s an awesome feeling.